Darts Premier League
Premier League Darts Night 13 preview: Humphries to show no Mersey
Premier League Night 13 is upon us and that means we only have four weeks remaining to find out who will fill the play-off spots to have the chance to go on and win this year’s competition.
We preview all four of the quarter finals below.
Luke Littler v Gerwyn Price (19:15)
Gerwyn Price managed to proceed past the early stage of last week’s matches by beating Rob Cross in dominant style. Price’s darts haven’t been landing where he wants this year, but there were definitely shades of the Iceman of old with a display of cool finishing last Thursday.
Luke Littler was unable to gain any points on Night 12, having lost his quarter final match to Michael Smith. Littler wasn’t good enough last week and there are signs that the relentless nature of this event could take its toll on the debutant, with his visits to treble 20 becoming increasingly questionable. Price can beat Littler if he plays near his best and we fancy him to oblige at 6/5.
Luke Humphries v Nathan Aspinall (19:45)
This match-up between two of the standout performers in the Premier League this season has every reason to be full of quality, even if the pair’s week 12 semi-final did not. Both Humphries and Aspinall seemed to struggle with their finishing last week when playing against each other, with Humphries averaging a 28.57% checkout rate and Aspinall not much better with 30%.
We expect both players to bring a better performance – Aspinall will have taken a lot of confidence out of his recent success over the past month and chip away at his opponent with an anticipated home crowd backing. However, Humphries has displayed this season that he has the ability to repel this Aspinall attack, so Humphries to win the Match and score the Most 180s, and Nathan Aspinall to record the Highest Match Checkout at 11/4 looks a good punt.
Peter Wright v Michael van Gerwen (20:15)
Next to take to the Liverpool oche will be Peter Wright and Michael van Gerwen – the pair experiencing different seasons in terms of performances. Peter Wright still finds himself adrift at the bottom of the league with a mere total of 4 points after only winning two of his quarter finals in this year’s contest.
Michael van Gerwen does sit in a prettier position higher up the table in fourth, but he must maintain some sort of form if he wants one of those play-off spots to be his. Michael Smith was a finalist last week and accrued some much-needed points to close the gap to only two points behind the play-off spots. No matter the surrounding context to this game, there is a massive gulf in the two players’ quality this year and we can only see one winner, so MVG to progress and each player to secure at least one checkout over 99 at 4/1 – boosted from 7/2 – looks a decent punt.
Michael Smith v Rob Cross (20:45)
The final quarter of the evening sees Michael Smith take on Rob Cross. Smith has picked up in form recently and continues to breathe down the neck of those before him in the play-off spots, with Luke Littler in particular finding him a difficult opponent to bypass. He reached last week’s final but fell just short to a rampant Nathan Aspinall.
Cross has not been in good form in the Premier League and hasn’t progressed past the quarter final stage since Night 6 of the competition. This could see Rob Cross struggling to keep up with Smith’s heavy hitting and fast finishing, so Smith is the backable price of 4/5 to beat his opponent on Thursday.
Smith is also Wayne Mardle’s Pick to win the night and has seen his price boosted from 9/1 to 10/1 with William Hill.
